Sicherheit in vernetzten Systemen - RRZ Universität Hamburg

11.1. HINTERGRUND
11.1.1 Cracker vs. Hacker
Das „Jargon File“ [Raymond 1996] 1 definiert den Begriff „Hacker“ wie folgt:
hacker /n./ [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe]
1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch
their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum
necessary.
2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather
than just theorizing about programming.
3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.
4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on
it; as in ‘a Unix hacker’. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who
fit them congregate.)
6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing
limitations.
8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking
around. Hence ‘password hacker’, ‘network hacker’. The correct term for this sense
is cracker. [...]
The term ‘hacker’ also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by
the net (see network, the and Internet address). It also implies that the person
described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see hacker ethic).
It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way.
Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though
one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction
to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not,
you’ll quickly be labeled bogus). See also wannabee.
Aha! Und ein Cracker ist dann bitteschön?
cracker /n./ One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hackers in defense
against journalistic misuse of hacker (q.v., sense 8). An earlier attempt to establish
‘worm’ in this sense around 1981-82 on Usenet was largely a failure. [...]
Use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion against the theft and vandalism
perpetrated by cracking rings. While it is expected that any real hacker will have done
some playful cracking and knows many of the basic techniques, anyone past larval stage
is expected to have outgrown the desire to do so except for immediate, benign, practical
reasons (for example, if it’s necessary to get around some security in order to get some
work done).
Thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and crackerdom than the mundane reader
misled by sensationalistic journalism might expect. Crackers tend to gather in small,
tight-knit, very secretive groups that have little overlap with the huge, open poly-culture
this lexicon describes; though crackers often like to describe *themselves* as hackers,
most true hackers consider them a separate and lower form of life.
1 In diesem Fall „http://www.tf.hut.fi/cgi-bin/jargon?search=hacker“, die generische URL scheint unter
„http://www.tuxedo.org/ esr/jargon/“ auf den Webseiten von Eric S. Raymond zu liegen.
SS 99, Seminar 18.416: Sicherheit in vernetzten Systemen 167